Photos: Ten all-time greatest April Fool’s pranks

.., Screen grab04.01.2014

Burger King tells a Whopper:
Fast-food chain Burger King announced a new left-handed Whopper in 1998. A full-page ad in USA Today said the condiments would be “rotated 180 degrees". The burger would be easier to hold onto for the 10 per cent of the population who are left-handed. People across the US headed to Burger King to try out the new sandwich.

..
/ Screen grab

Volcano blows smoke:
Mount Edgecumbe volcano in Sitka, Alaska had been dormant for 9,000 years but suddenly began billowing dark smoke in 1974. A coastguard team flew in to investigate and discovered 100 burning tires near the volcano's crater. Turns out, the fire was started by a local fellow, Oliver Bickar, who had spent four years planning the stunt. ..
/ http://www.sitka.com

Google Nose:
On March 31, 2013 Google announced it had launched a new product called Google Nose, to complete with its own "aromabase". The company announced the Google Nose in a tweet from its new Google Nose account: "We're excited to announce our newest addition to Search: Google Nose. What do wet dogs smell like? Google Nose!" Many people failed to detect the announcement’s fishy smell. ..
/ Google screen grab

Richard Branson takes flight in a UFO:
In 1989, businessman Richard Branson staged a prank to generate publicity for his new airline. Branson took to the skies in a hot air balloon shaped like a UFO. His plan was to land in London’s Hyde Park on April 1. But, his balloon was blown off course, and ended up landing in a field in Surrey. However, the hoax did fool some drivers on the M25, with some making emergency calls to the police to report a UFO sighting. ..
/ http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/ufos

The Titanic resurfaces:
In 2012 the Daily Mirror published a phony story on the construction of a Titanic Two. Strangely enough, just a month later, one of the world's richest men, Clive Palmer, announced his plan to build a Titanic replica. The Daily Mirror then took credit for its "scoop"...
/ The Daily Mirror online

Alabama gets pied:
Physicist Mark Boslough wrote an article in the April 1998 issue of New Mexicans for Science and Reason under the name "April Holiday. The article, at a time when Alabama was trying to get intelligent design taught in schools, reported that the Alabama legislature had redefined Pi from 3.14 to 3.0 to bring it closer to the "biblical value". State politicians were swamped with phone calls demanding that Pi be left alone. ..
/ Wikipedia commons

YouTube shuts down:
In 2013, YouTube announced that it would stop accepting videos and go into a 1--year hiatus to determine which video submitted to the site should be awarded the title of "Best video on the internet". YouTube said: "We are so close to the end. Tonight at midnight, YouTube.com will no longer be accepting entries. After eight amazing years, it's finally time to review everything that has been uploaded to our site and begin the process of selecting a winner." ..
/ Youtube

The great spaghetti harvest:
In 1957, BBC TV aired a program about how Swiss farmers were struggling to cope with "an exceptionally heavy spaghetti crop". Even the head of the BBC, Ian Jacob, was taken in. ..
/ http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine

San Serriffe, the island paradise:
On April 1, 1977, the U.K.’s Guardian's published a seven-page travel supplement on the tropical island of San Serriffe, "a small archipelago, its main islands grouped roughly in the shape of a semicolon, in the Indian Ocean". The special report told of Bodoni, the capital, and the two main islands -- Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse. ..
/ The Guardian online

The year the planets aligned:
In 1976, British astronomer Patrick Moore told BBC radio listeners that at 9:47 a.m. a rare alignment of Pluto and Saturn would temporarily reduce gravity on Earth. Moore told listeners that if they jumped in the air at that exact moment they would experience a floating sensation. Many people later phoned in to say they had felt the effect. ..
/ Wikipedia commons

Photos: Ten all-time greatest April Fool’s pranks

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